


Separated by Glass

by theravinggamer



Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, a majority of the silva's suck, asta got hurt bigtime, just stinking rich, mermaid au, merman asta, no magic for humans, noelle is not royalty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:14:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24363367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theravinggamer/pseuds/theravinggamer
Summary: Noelle had lived a mixed life. On one hand she was rich and most comforts she wanted she could simply buy. On the other her family either was cold to her or abused her. One day her father had somehow acquired a mythical creature, one from the depths of the ocean. With the tail of a shark, the body of a human, green eyes that shone beneath the water and through the glass and teeth that could tear anything he wanted to pieces.The merman known as Asta was literally dropped into Noelle's life. He wants to go back to the ocean, but will he be able to escape from the large display?
Relationships: Asta & Yuno (Black Clover), Asta/Noelle Silva
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	Separated by Glass

Noelle’s family were rich, stinking rich depending on who you asked. It got to the point where they considered themselves royalty before the teenager was born. This meant they had a finger in every pie, door or plot of land they could get.

Before a certain incident, Noelle hadn’t seen anything wrong with this. 

Then he entered her life. There had always been legends of Merfolk, whether they were sirens luring sailors to a presumably gruesome fate, or even helping ships lost at sea. The ports in Clover had its fair share of stories about mermaids.

And then one was dropped in a massive display tank in the middle of her family’s palace. Somehow the Silva family had acquired a mermaid, probably due to fishing connections. Noelle watched as the tank was filled, almost insultingly comical things were placed alongside the struggling merman. A chest that opened and blew bubbles, an old diving suit, and things you’d expect to see in a goldfish tank.

“Brother?” Noelle asked the eldest of her siblings, Nozel. A man who could really use someone to tell him a front braid ponytail doesn’t look that dignified. “What… is that?”

“That is father’s newest fascination,” he said sternly, turning away from Noelle and walking towards the staircase surrounding the tank. “Simply think of it as a decoration, nothing more.”

Noelle nodded, she wanted to ask more but heard the sounds of footsteps storming towards the manor. The front doors burst open, reporters, people who wanted to see a legendary creature and people who wanted to see inside of a manor.

Nozel bravely approached the crowd, Noelle noticing her father and other two siblings doing the same. She took a breath, trying to remember her strategies for anxiety as she walked down, her father giving her a dirty look as she got closer.

‘Just don’t say anything,’ she thought to herself. ‘You can’t get into trouble if you don’t say anything.’ She tried to keep her breathing level, but as she got into the view of the camera’s she quickly stood behind her family, completely out of sight.

“Mister Silva!” one reporter asked their father. “How did you acquire such a creature!?”

“Well… it certainly wasn’t easy,” the father said, Noelle looking at the tank to distract herself from her own anxiety. She got a better look at the merperson, a shark like tail, with more than one fin missing from his tail. He had thin, wavy grey coloured hair, or what appeared to be hair. As Noelle found herself walking closer to the tank, she swore it was closer to the tentacles on jellyfish.

“Naturally we had to resort to… riskier methods of capture.” Noelle's father continued, no one seemingly noticing her walk towards the tank. “Sadly, it was harmed but as it's going to be one of our proudest displays.”

“Does that mean it will be moved to a museum?” someone asked, Noelle no longer paying much attention as It waved at her. She fought back a surprised squeak as it moved behind part of the tank's decorations. His head peeking out and showing off a grin with at least one visible row of razor sharp teeth. Noelle swore she heard more of the questions but kept looking at the merman. It had bright green eyes, its smile seeming almost calm as it mouthed something.

“I can’t… hear you,” she whispered back. Trying to do her best to talk to him. He looked disappointed, giving Noelle the idea that he couldn’t hear her either. She chanced a look behind her, seeing the private security stopping people from taking photos of the tank. When she looked back, the merperson was putting his finger in the sand, writing something out.

“Asta?” Noelle whispered, the fishman quickly swimming away from the glass as a shadow loomed over the girl.

“Noelle, get away from there!” her father shouted, causing the girl to stumble backwards. She looked around, the room was mostly empty now besides any servants or security personnel and her immediate family. “You had nothing to do with this success. Do not approach this trophy of ours.”

“Y-Yes father…” Noelle said quietly, trying to practice her anxiety techniques to calm down. The looks from Solid or Nebra didn’t help as she tried to go up towards her room. She caught a worried look from Asta, somehow looking more worried about her despite his current situation.

Asta watched the silver haired girl walk up a set of stairs, something in his gut telling him she wasn’t okay. Probably the sound of her heart beating way too fast, it was a handy trait of being a merfolk, they could hear certain sounds regardless of volume. 

The old guy's heart was slow, and cold. The two middle family members had scary heartbeats, though that might be from the fact that they cut off a few of his fins. The oldest sibling though, he couldn’t really get a read on his heartbeat. Part of it was intense, another part was cold and calculating. He let out a breath and laid on the bottom of the tank.

“Humans are weird,” he thought. He was only able to hear what they were saying if his head was above water, but not being able to breath fucking sucked. At least he got to give his name to someone, but now he needed to figure out a way out.

“Uuuugh I wish I could use that magic Vanessa told me about.” he sighed, the sea witch had taught him how to prepare a spell that’d give him legs for a day, but he had absolutely zero talent for it. He tried to plan, at least knowing for the moment he was some level of safe. “Or if Yuno was here… dammit. I hope he’s okay.”

His human friend was how they wound up finding him, some guy with a grudge out for the prodigy had followed him around and leaked a picture of Asta. before long Yuno had figured out and tried to warn Asta. He still remembered hearing Yuno screaming for the merperson to try and run. 

That had been at least four days ago, one of the siblings caught him with something thin and sharp, leaving him without certain fins he needed to swim his best. 

“Even if I got away… could I even make it back home?” he muttered, a hand going over one of the scars. Some crazy lady had stitched them up, but they still stung. He looked over through the glass, he’d been ignoring the old man now rambling about something in front of him. Up above was some kind of cover on his cage, there were holes but nothing big enough for him to do much.

But a little payback wouldn’t hurt. Asta grinned and swam up to the top of the tank, and inhaled a bunch of water. He positioned himself as the old fart who had captured him, noticed he was up to something, aimed, and fired out a spurt of water that caused the very expensive looking suit to be coated in salt water.

He put an ear above water as best as he could just to hear anything.

“MY SUIT, THIS FUCKING SUIT WAS IRREPLACABLE!!” the man yelled, Asta dropping back beneath the water to laugh his fins off. He watched as the guy walked up to the glass and took something out of his pocket, it looked like an octopus’s suction cup to the merman.

And then it started blasting noise, Asta screaming in pain as the entire tank vibrated. He thrashed around, even going as far as headbutting the glass to try and make it stop. The only thing that accomplished was making a small bit of his own blood enter the tank.

Eventually the noise stopped, Asta’s headache slowly fading as he felt the heartbeats of the Silva’s get further away. He floated for a few minutes, until something entered the water. It was what appeared to be a raw chunk of meat, with the blood still oozing out of it. Instincts kicked in, and he swam for it, his jaws tearing through the meat like it was nothing.

He looked up, a few chunks of meat floating around as he grabbed them and kept eating. He wasn’t really sure where it came from, since he couldn’t feel anyone around him. There was another splash, Asta now noticing a little black flap that had the smell of food coming from it.

Granted he wouldn’t turn down a free meal, but the feeling of isolation was hitting him. He grabbed the next chunk of food and swam to the bottom of the tank, he wolfed down the food and started arranging a small cove to sleep in.

Noelle couldn’t sleep, her anxiety was still spiking despite her best attempts to calm down. Normally she would try and run a bath, or go out to the ocean. A sixteen year old can’t really do that when she’s part of a family who wants nothing to do with her and would scream if she ran a bath long enough to calm down.

Which is why she found herself walking towards the absurdly large fish tank. It wasn’t unreasonable for someone to be up at this hour, but as long as she didn't get in any news with the mermaid she probably wouldn’t get yelled at.

Probably. But right now she just wanted to calm down and think. She moved a chair as carefully as she could, found the right spot and sat down. Thankfully not many people were around, so she leaned back, closed her eyes, and let the water do the rest.

Asta on the other hand, was woken up by the frantically beating heart he could hear. The merman had managed to get a bit of rest and woke up to see the girl from earlier, now sitting in a chair with her head leaned back. He listened, the beating getting slower and slower before going to what he thought was a normal rate. 

He swam out of the little cove, going higher up to try and let her know he was awake. Something was telling him she was nicer than the others, and waited patiently as he waited for her eyes to open.

‘In… out…’ Noelle thought, sitting with her head leaned back. The sound of water getting her to calm down after what felt like an eternity. ‘In… out…’ she opened her eyes, a set of emerald green eyes met hers from inside the tank. Asta waved, giving a huge grin with a set of razor sharp teeth. Noelle hesitantly waved back, with the merman swimming around happily as she carefully stood up to look at him. 

“Why… are you friendly to me?” She mumbled, Asta swimming to the glass and putting an ear against it. Noelle sighed, and repeated herself. Asta shrugging either as an answer or because he couldn’t hear her as he swam to the top. There was still just enough room for him to get his mouth into the air.

“Can’t hear you,” he said, his voice full of energy despite a noticeable dryness. “Voices don’t work…” he stopped to dive beneath the water like someone needing to come up for air. “Voices don’t travel because of the glass!” Noelle ran up the stairs to be next to the top of the tank, Asta now floating sideways with an ear just out of the water.

“Why are you acting friendly to me?” she said quietly, Asta floating there in case she had more to say. “My family caught you.”

Asta spun around and gave her a grin before putting as much of his head as he could above water. “Cause, your heartbeat is nice.”

“What?” Noelle said, trying to hide a snicker at the seemingly absurd idea.

“Yeah!” Asta said, taking time to dive back under the water when he needed to. “Something about it just says you’re a good person.”

“And you can hear it… how?” the rich girl asked, Asta shrugging before poking his head above water again.

“Dunno, all people like me can.” he said, putting a hand Noelle could now see had webbing between the fingers behind his neck. “It’s how we can tell who to go near!”

Something clanged upstairs before Noelle could ask another question, the sound of heavy tired footsteps slowly descended as she left without a word, moving into a side room away from the upper staircase. Both human and merfolk watched as Nozel stepped down, his tired eyes scanning the room before settling on the tank.

“I see you can talk,” he said, Noelle tensing as her brother looked directly at her hiding spot. “I would advise you stay quieter, and that whoever you were talking to take more care in how late she stays up.”

Neither of the two responded, with Nozel yawning before heading back up the stairs. Noelle quietly snuck up behind him, now seeing a clock and that it was well past midnight. Asta swam back into his cove and settled to get some rest.

Things would truly start tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this for mermay, no idea if ill continue it but for now, please enjoy.


End file.
